Geographic Location: Turkey's Influence & Advantages

1. THE VALUE OF GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION PPH1 CAHIT ELGINKAN ANADOLU LISESI 11 TMB KOCAELI TURKEY HURI CINAR

2. PARTICIPANT: TRANSCOM INSTITUTE KUMASI GHANA ABUBAKAR ABDULAI

3. We are a group of students from 11TMB,Cahit Elginkan Anadolu Lisesi,Kocaeli,Turkey.We wanted to know about the positive and negative influence of a country’s geographic location to its climate,development,economy and military power and how to change disadvantages into advantages.For instance, Turkey functions as a bridge to connect Asia to Europe and this enriches its economy. Being surrounded by seas on three sides is an advantage to tourism industry and sea transport. However, as the surface is uneven, we cannot take enough advantages of minerals and water resources. • Many thanks to the students from Transcom Institute who kindly contributed.

4. Our city;it is a bay at the Marmara Sea.It has petroleum refineries and it is the region where petro-chemical industry is set up. Majority of population manages to live working in petroleum and chemical industry factories. Kocaeli is one of the nearest cities to Istanbul,which links Asia to Europe.The city is crowded and rich.Besides,it has a cultural wealth for historical side. The city is developing rapidly.

5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of your country’s geographic location? • The climate of Turkey is temperate.Turkey functions as a bridge to connect Asia and Europe.Our border neighbours are Bulgaria,Greece,Syria,Iraq,Armenia and Georgia.In Turkey we live different climates.The seas surround three sides of the country.They are Aegean Sea,Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea.They form two important straits,so our mercantile is developed.

6. Turkey has a lot of important metals and mineral deposits,but the surface form of our country is rough and the reserves of metals are a few,so we cannot take advantage of them efficiently.

7. Our country lends itself to growing and cattle-dealing. This is an advantage for nutrient sector.Wheat is grown in many parts of the country,but it can provide merely our need. Cotton is grown in a large area country and it provides contribution to textile. Textile industry is well-developed.

8. Turkey is one of the Mediterranean countries, so we are lucky about tourism.

9. How influential is the geographic location of your country to its economy? • Geographic location influences the economy of Turkey in these ways: • It is located under the middle latitudes.The climate in Turkey becomes hot-warmluke in summers due to this location and it makes life and economic activities easy. It increases the variety of plants, agricultural life, stock-breeding, industry, trade and tourism.

10. Turkey is surrounded by seas on the three sides.The followings are influenced by this feature: • Dampness on coasts becomes higher and as it influences human life, plants, agricultural products, forestry and stock-breeding, it provides a positive addition to development. • Navigation, especially sea transportation, sea trading and fishing. • It refreshes tourism on coasts.

11. Turkey is located among the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. Being placed on transportation ways among these continents influences Turkey in very different ways and these effects to be continued.

12. Does it have any positive or negative influence to your military power? • We have been struggling with terror organizations. Our soldiers are charged to stop terrorism. The surface form of our country is uneven and this makes it easy for terrorists to hide in the mountains and this is a negative effect for the military power. • What kind of contribution does it provide? • As already mentioned, it contributes to agriculturing, mining, tourism, cattle-dealing and industries.

13. How will it be possible to change negative effects into positive ones? • Our country has seven geographic regions. The south eastern part of Turkey is arid. However, we make it suitable for agriculturing with GAP ( Southeast Anatolian Project)